Finding a school in the bay area (Sunnyvale, Mountain View: apartment, to rent)

[sabapc]

Hi everyone.

I recently started this post about the cost of living in the bay area (and the possibility of taking a job there):
http://www.city-data.com/forum/san-j...elocation.html

I got a lot of helpful information and a couple of days ago I accepted the job and am planning on relocating in August this year. So my main concern right now is school, since I'm relocating with a 7 year old daughter who's already going through 2nd grade here in Chile.

I started this post to have a discussion about good private schools in the area. Once I choose the school, I plan to rent a house or apartment as near as possible. Also after consideration, I think my budget for school is going to be USD $10,000 (anual).

My wife is the one who's spent the most time "surfing the web" for schools in the area, and she's found the following options so far:

(USD $8,500) St. Joseph Catholic School in Mountain View, California

(????????) St. Nicholas Catholic School, Los Altos HillsSt. Nicholas Catholic School, Los Altos Hills | Welcome to St. Nicholas School

(USD $9,700) Resurrection Catholic School

Now, personally, I don't care if it's a catholic school. These are my wife's search results. I do care about christian values. As an example, my daughter is currently enrolled in a christian school where they were liberal enough to accept us when my wife and I were still not married and there are no priests in the school, but they teach the christian values. That's ideal to me.

Can anyone provide information about good private schools within the budget I specified?

Someone made a comment in another post, saying that good private schools cost 18,000 to 24,000 (a year). Does that mean the schools we've been able to find so far are not good? Last Friday I called the St. Joseph school and talked to the principal for an hour. She was extremely helpful and I got a very good feeling about the school.

[SiliconWriter]

Be aware that the public schools in the same area as these private schools are very good. The social tolerance of of alternate lifestyles (i.e. not married while living together) is very high here in the Bay Area, even inside most Church circles. I think all of these schools are "parish" schools meaning, they serve a particular Catholic church or "parish."

My kids have gone to school with kids from St Joesphs and Resurrection. There is also another school in Los Altos that is well liked. St. Simon on Grant. It seems like folks attend these schools for a multitude of different reasons. Even non-christian immigrants send their kids to these schools.

Personally, I went to a Catholic high school. I chose to give my kids the "neighborhood" school experience. Mountain View Elementary, Los Altos Elementary, Sunnyvale Elementary, and Cupertino Elementary are the districts in this area. All have excellent schools that are among the top in the state and can very easily be academically superior to the Catholic schools.

Good luck.

[sabapc]

Thanks, so quick question, is there a place where I can find comparable information about private schools? I've found that, between public schools it's easy to compare, because the information is pretty much standardized.

But I haven't been able to find that for private schools.

[Wintermomma]

Catholic schools are subsidized by their larger organizations (or at least the church where they reside), that is why they are less.

GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community has more school information.

[charmed59]

Note that the ratings of the local public schools and school district affect the price of the homes in those neighborhoods. Even if those Catholic schools aren't as good as the public schools in Mt. View and Los Altos, you will be paying more to live close to those schools because the public schools there are so desirable.